With his recent public statements, actor Robert De Niro has become an unlikely center of attention. As the co-founder of the Tribeca Film festival, De Niro has come under mainstream media fire for allowing the film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe to be shown at this years Tribeca Film Festival in New York. In a 48 hour period, most major mainstream media outlets ran similar, unoriginal headlines attacking De Niro with words like “anti-vaccine crackpot” and “anti-vaxx kook.”

In his initial public statement, De Niro called for “all the issues surrounding the cases of autism be openly discussed and examined.” De Niro added in his original statement that because the issue of autism is personal to him and his family, he wanted to “provide the opportunity for a conversation around the issue.” De Niro's decision to keep the film was reportedly reached after a one-hour conversation with Congressman Bill Posey.

Two days after his statement’s — which attracted viral attention over the internet — De Niro flip-flopped releasing a statement pulling the film. In his second public release, De Niro stated:

“…after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”

Who will “provide the opportunity for a conversation around this issue” now? The film Vaxxed has garnered major press and is trending right now. Avenues exist to release this movie amidst the hype generated by De Niro and the Tribeca snub heard around the world. Netflix comes to mind as an independent distribution platform able to instantly reach millions. The longer this film is snubbed, the more attention it will attract. One has to assume that the Tribeca pressure will be enough for all other major film festivals to pass as well. Yet history has shown that any attempt to suppress controversial music or film in the age of information always backfires with spectacular results.

The good news is that the recent attempted hijacking of the narrative around vaccine safety, autism and corruption at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out there for all to see. De Niro’s retraction reeks of inside pressure. The mainstream media’s hair trigger attacks against any unsanctioned discussion around vaccines/autism borders on the ridiculous. What is also clear is that the mainstream media is highly biased and working full-time for pharmaceutical interests. Little to no alternative points of view or journalistic integrity could be found during the name calling and personal attacks De Niro initially endured when the film was greenlighted for Tribeca. A study in high-level, coordinated mainstream media astroturfing was laid bare for all to see.

The film Vaxxed is loaded and ready to go. It will only be a matter of time before it is made public — film festivals or not. Meanwhile, a historical groundswell of families and communities are rising up to demand answers to autism. At the same time, exponential numbers worldwide have activated and are pushing back against a coordinated, unethical mandatory vaccine push. People are rapidly responding to send back any mandatory vaccine law attempting to be floated in their state or country. Those millions globally that have been vaccine-injured are demanding justice and reform from their inept political and healthcare systems who are now forced to listen.

April is Autism Awareness Month. In 2015, it was estimated that 1 in 45 children were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder— that works out to be over 7 million Americans. Currently, hope is being found in the collective action of those who passionately want to see this epidemic turned around. The AutismOne conference in Chicago is the world’s premier source for breaking information concerning medical treatments, detoxing methods and studies all aimed to recover autistic children and support their parents and caregivers. Medical marijuana is showing great promise as a healing modality for children affected by autism. Pennsylvania is set to become the first state to legalize autism as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Grassroots billboard campaigns dot the landscape of the US warning of the true dangers of vaccines. And as for Tribeca, there is an active signature campaign at change.org to reinstate Vaxxed to the film festival which reached its goal of 5000 in just over four hours.